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Google translate translates "好高骛远" into ambitious. I was wondering if you agree with that? I don't think ambitious carries the meaning of lacking capability.

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  • "To hitch one's wagon to a star" is a very close idiom in English -- just unfortunately, 好高骛远 is derogatory but this one is not.
    – Stan
    Oct 30, 2013 at 0:10
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    Though this is not necessarily an idiom, "flying too close to the sun" is sometimes said in English and is an allusion to the story of Icarus, in which Icarus plummets to his death after ignoring his father's advice not to fly too high. This saying does have negative connotations about over ambition.
    – Claw
    Oct 30, 2013 at 1:18

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From Bai Du Zhi Dao:

好高骛远 (Hào gāo wù yuǎn) means:

比喻不切实际地追求过高过远的目标 (Bǐyù bù qiè shíjì dì zhuī qiú guò gāo guò yuǎn de mùbiāo.) : you unrealistically pursue goals that are too high and far.

To break down the phrase: 好高骛远

好 (Hào- 4th tone = likes/wants), so... 好高 (Hào gāo): likes/wants (things that are) high

骛 (wù): Greedy

远 (yuǎn): Far, Distant (So, 骛远 = over ambitious/over greedy)

To break that guy's response down:

不切实际 (bù qiè shíjì): Phrase to indicate impracticality of something

地 (dì): usually means "ground"... but here it follows an adverb. For example, 他慢慢地走过去 (he slowly walked over there). So, 慢慢 would be modifying the verb 追求 (zhuī qiú), so you use 地 (dì) between the adverb and the verb。 Like he "impractically pursued x": 他不切实际*地*追求x

追求 (zhuī qiú): to pursue something stubbornly.

过高过远 (guò gāo guò yuǎn): 过 just means "pass over, too much, pass": so 过高 and 过远 just means too high and too far.

目标 (mùbiāo): Goal

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  • What will people say for the same meaning in English?
    – Newbie
    Oct 29, 2013 at 20:42
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    tone 4 好 (hào) means like (喜欢)
    – congusbongus
    Oct 29, 2013 at 22:33
  • @T... "Over ambitious" would be an adequate English meaning. It has the connotation that capability may be lacking.
    – Claw
    Oct 29, 2013 at 23:31
  • @congusbongus are you saying that my usage above- 好高 (Hào gāo): quite high- is incorrect?
    – user3871
    Oct 30, 2013 at 13:05
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    Yes; 好高 would be closer to "likes/wants (things that are) high", where "high" means things like "high status", "high achievement" etc.
    – congusbongus
    Oct 30, 2013 at 13:09
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I think, 好高骛远 means: reach for what is beyond one's grasp

Here is some example translate:

I'm not prone to extravagant fancies.
我是不会好高骛远的。

A high flier may have an impossible hope for the future.
好高骛远的人，也许将来有个难以实现的愿望。

Hew not too high lest the chips fall in thine eye.
伐木时不要砍得太高，否则木屑会跑入你的眼睛。（勿好高骛远，应实事求事。）

People should be down-to-earth, instead of being over-ambitious.
做人应该脚踏实地，不要好高骛远。

Tom has taken five courses this semester, including French. I think he is bitting offchew. 汤姆这个学期选修了五门课, 还包括法语, 我想他是有些好高骛远了.

==== I think "over-ambitious" will do the trick. Google is kinda right.

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"好" has two pronunciation.

好(hǎo) is an adjective or an adverb, which means "good", "well", "queit" or "very".

好(hào) is a verb, which means "like to do something".

好高 should be read as "hào gāo", so it means "like to be high" literally, similar to "aim high" in English, but in a derogatory way.

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骛(wù) stands for "seek" or "look for".

远 stands for "far away".

鹜远 stands for "seek something far away" ("far away" means that it is impossible, so the unspoken word is that it is stupid to aim so high )

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好高骛远 is a derogatory idiom, which means "ambitious in an arrogant way".

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  • 好 has three pronunciations, not just two: hǎo, hào, and hāo (as in 好好儿 hǎohāor).
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Dec 8, 2013 at 16:21
  • @JanusBahsJacquet The pronunciation hāo is regarded as the 懒音 of hǎo. Just like native English speaker may pronounce different like difrent (omit e sound) and pronounce What's up? like Wazzup?
    – Victor
    Dec 31, 2013 at 17:41
  • Do you have any sources to back that up? Productive reduplication normally produces a 懒音 that is a neutral tone, also with 好 (好好先生, for example, is hǎohaoxiānshēng, not hǎohāoxiānshēng; and 好好端端 is hǎohaoduānduan, not hǎohāoduānduān). The word 好好(儿) is irregular in this respect, and the fact that it has a change in tone, rather than a reduction, to me speaks quite firmly against it being a 懒音.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Dec 31, 2013 at 18:38
  • @JanusBahsJacquet In fact the 好好儿 should be mark as hǎo haor in Pinyin. For example, 桔子, mark as jú zi and 椅子 mark as yǐ zi, although the former zi sound like the weak sound of zǐ and the latter zi sound like the weak sound of zī.
    – Victor
    Jan 1, 2014 at 12:29
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    That is exactly why it is not simply a 懒音, because 好好(儿) is not hǎohao(r). The reduplication is a clear, distinct first tone in Standard Mandarin, not a neutral tone. Both 子 examples are completely irrelevant, since they are perfectly regular neutral tones, taking over their tonal contour from the preceding tone that they are enclitic to.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Jan 1, 2014 at 12:43

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